>> announcer: this is an abc news special, "your voice, your vote," election night 2012, live from abc news election night headquarters in times square, new york. now reporting, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and we welcome you back from times square, election headquarters and here we are, we are in the final stretch in this long campaign. the polls have closed in five more states in the west, which means one more state, one more state still has the polls open and that will be alaska, two more hours there, and we have some projections to make here, george. california, we are ready to project for barack obama now. of course, the biggest democratic prize but got over 60% of the vote in '08 and ready to project washington state, a blue state for barack obama.

idaho, that will be for governor romney. solid red state. that was also a big state for john mccain four years ago, and hawaii, his home state, that would have been a big disappointment. >> no chance that was going to happen. >> for barack obama but it certainly did. one more state before the polls close. >> let's go back to jake tapper and david muir with the campaigns. jake, let me start with you, clearly the excitement is starting to build inside the obama headquarters. they sense something is happening. >> reporter: indeed, george. president obama said earlier today that he could see this election spilling into tomorrow, but it does not seem right now that they think that's going to happen. you have all sorts of indications that president obama is getting prepared to come here to the mccormick center and we have all sorts of indications including cameramen getting into position up in the rafters

there, sound systems being checked. it seems as though people are preparing to are a speech to be delivered sometime in the next hour, so people are getting excited, and as we have seen the projections being made and every single one of the states, the romney campaign was suggesting might fall into their column, pennsylvania, wisconsin, minnesota has gone to president obama. new hampshire, a growing recognition that this does look like a good night for president obama. >> and david muir getting ever more quiet at romney headquarters. >> reporter: you can see everybody is watching the screens flipping back from network to network as some of these returns come in. a video just ended here, the mitt romney narrative that they often play at campaign stops, largely ann talking about her husband mitt, the second time they played it here this evening. the last applause i heard here was for the projection in

arizona and before that it was the projection in texas so this is a room that's waiting for one of those close states but this campaign has been counting on, quite frankly, florida or virginia to be called and, of course, ohio and they can see all of our coverage and all of the net works talking a lot about ohio but this room, they're politically clued in and knows that this campaign needs ohio. i'm tethered to the broadcast location but i haven't seen any of the top key advisers. they're sort of hunkered down as are the romneys. mitt and ann in a hotel room with the five boys and the grandchildren and paul ryan also here in boston. he's not in the room with the romneys. he and his wife and his mother who has been on the trail with him, they're staying at another hotel here in boston, not far from here but they're watching the returns come in separately. i have reached out to a couple of sources on the campaign and can tell you the night is not over. these states are very close along the east coast, florida, virginia, as i mentioned

earlier, they're not ready to certainly concede anything, but they're also not terribly upbeat about the way the night is unfolding. >> to sharyn alfonsi in wisconsin and she's at a republican event there. sharyn? >> reporter: yeah, i'm at a republican watch party that is not feeling very much like a party. you can feel the air kind of get sucked out of the room, but people are still hanging around. they haven't run for the bar yet. they were initially encouraged, the exit polling showing romney actually beat obama with working class voters but then those other voters, young voters coming in 2-1 in wisconsin for obama. it was a real changing moment. now, the president had worked this area very hard all over the state, he was here three times in the last five days, bringing in bruce springsteen, but really, you know, republicans were hoping paul ryan for all his muscle could turn the blue

tide, it couldn't be done. i think voters here are completely exhausted. you know, ever since the recall in june, they have been bombarded with phone calls, robo calls, one voter told me she heard from bill clinton, pat boone and from clint eastwood. hadn't heard from clint eastwood's chair yet. she was waiting for that next but they are exhausted. they're at the end of their ropes. a cab driver on the way over told me it's been like a roller coaster and at the end of the ride someone will be happy and someone will be sick to their stomach but here in wisconsin most voters are just happy it's coming to an end. >> all right, sharyn. thank you. now we want to make a projection in missouri right now and take a look at the map because we are projecting missouri for governor romney. again, this is a red state, so take us through the map now, george. >> we see still everyone -- every state coming in basically as we expected of the red states have been met for a long time. the blue states still blue but some disappointment there for

governor romney could not pick up wisconsin as sharyn said, could not pick up pennsylvania and the big battlegrounds that has gotten most of the attention and money from the campaign still out there, but president obama with a lead in ohio, holding on to a small lead in florida, virginia, north carolina, too close to call right now. i do want to look -- we've gotten a number from our exit poll that i told everybody to watch at the beginning of the night, the white share of the electorate. back in 2008, 74% of the electorate was white. look at our exit poll tonight, shows that number has gone down to 72%, matthew dowd, you see that there, 72% of the electorate white according to our exit poll right now, a massive move continuing a trend of the last 30 year, but that was a trend that the romney campaign was hoping to buck. >> yeah, that was the trend that the romney campaign, their theory of the races i said wasn't going to happen. it would go back and change. go back to a 2004 type of race and that's what developed

throughout the evening. the fact that the american electorate is fundamentally different than it's been over the last 20 years or 25 years and slowly as we've said become more a share of minorities, more a share of women and that actually made it more and more and more difficult for republicans to win national races. you can only get so many white votes and after that if you're underperforming among minorities, it's very hard to win a majority. >> and donna brazile, that is why you see president obama holding on in those southeastern states of florida, north carolina and virginia but also doing quite well in the polls coming in the southwest, as well, new mexico, nevada and colorado. >> the democrats have always believed that you have to enlarge the electorate. you have to reach out to women. you have to reach out to minorities. but more importantly, i wanted to bring this in. in 1992 in the bill clinton campaign, the white electorate, 87%, by 2000 for al gore, 81%. today, in the 2008 campaign, 74%

of the electorate and today, 72%. so it's declining, the minority population is increasing. >> okay, i want to go now and give you a projection. it is north carolina coming in for governor romney. again, we had seen him a bit ahead there and there it is, it is a switch, of course, president obama won it narrowly back in 2008 but now it goes to governor romney. >> this was not a state that president obama was counting on but certainly one they were hoping for because they had invested so much time. >> convention. >> in that ground game in north carolina, also having the convention at charlotte but it was not to be. governor romney holding on to that state tonight and look at that solid wall of red right across the south, george will. >> well, it's now the solid south but it's not adequate. it looks increasingly like less like the base of a thriving party than a fortress of an embattled party. >> i want to go to ron brownstein because we've seen this reduction in the white

participation in this vote and you predicted it would soften somewhat. is this a surprise to you. >> exactly what the obama's campaign was it would go down to 72% and they are exactly -- obama at this moment of the exit poll is exactly at the line we talked about before, his formula for victory, it puts him in position to win with only 40% of whites. in 2008 became the first candidate ever to lose whites by double digits and win. now he could lose whites by nearly 20 points and win, again, winning enough of them in the midwest to put together a collision there and sunbelt states winning enough of that diverse population to overcome whites there. >> pull up the board. another look at ohio to see how much of the vote is coming in. you see it right there, 50-48, president obama over governor romney right now but it is quite close. to ron claiborne, who is outside the state capitol in ohio

tonight. >> reporter: george, the margin that president obama has been slowly whittling down all night is now less than 30,000 votes out of about 4,300,000, just over 70% of the votes in now and early indication of trouble for the president were two counties, cuyahoga which includes cleveland and also franklin county which includes columbus, ohio, where i am where he racked up large margins and also racking up large margins but thele vote count was down by a total of 50,000 or more. if you figure that the president would get about 60% of those votes, that say lot of votes he is not getting that he otherwise had gotten four years ago, so right now we're looking at a very tight race basically tied with about 30% of the vote still to go. i should note that hamilton county, that key county in the southwestern part of the state,

right now the president is doing very well there with early results in, but there's still a lot more votes to be counted down there in hamilton county, george. >> so bring us up to date now, george, on the electoral votes then take us to florida. let's keep -- >> we see the electoral votes in so far, 244 for president obama, 203 for governor romney. that means that president obama needs 26 more electoral votes to get to 270. obviously 67 for governor romney. florida key to all that, that's got 29 electoral votes. see how that stands. look at the board on florida and see how close that is right now between governor romney and president obama right there. still 50%-49%. so close right there right now, 40,000 votes separate president obama from governor romney in that all-important state of florida. >> we're not back to 2000. >> not quite. >> but this is a core separation and another break and when we come back, this news is breaking fast, breaking big and we'

and good evening, i'm dan ashley. >> i'm carolyn johnson. this is election update for you. polls in california now closed and the counting has begun. let's take a look first at santa clara. measure a voters went to polls to vote fon measure a, a question of raising sales tax to fund services we're getting results in. we'll bring them to you as soon as we can. >> we hope to do the same for measure d in san jose raising minimum wage from 8ss today $10 an hour. >> let's focus now on some of the social media become such a huge part of the election like never before, really. >> candidates and others are turning to this. abc 7 news is following it all and joins us live from the newsroom. >> as voting wraps up, waiting game begins as you just saw just a moment ago.

on twitter the state of ojai yes is trending nationally and here in the bay area. let's me tell you comedians are having a field day with this. boys comedy tweets ohio and florida haven't been this important since lebron left, referring to lebron james, and one says wow, ohio stretch it out. all eyes on you. drama queens she says and brian allen says breaking news, cnn reportingfa ohio is 75% doubt. remember our ipad app has all of the live results. you can down load that for me free. >> abc 7 news will bring you latest results throughout the night. stay with us. >> you can get realtime results on abc 7 news.co

>> announcer: "your voice, your vote," from times square, new york, once again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. so i'm going to give you two projections that may be the least surprising projections for the night. oregon projected for president obama and guess what, paul ryan has won his congressional seat, he was running for it, of course, simultaneously -- >> wasn't going to lose that one anyway but just as an insurance policy to help, he spent $4 million on television ads in a congressional seat to hold that seat for paul ryan and try to carry wisconsin, as well. we also have news in the senate,

as well, it turns out tim kaine, former governor of virginia, has defeated another former governor, former senator george allen, 51%-49%. governor allen conceded and democrats are up now in the senate. >> yeah, george, this night started out as the question being would republicans regain control of the u.s. senate? that's what this has been about from the beginning. this was probably their best opportunity to do this. with 23 democratic targets, now the big question, will democrats actually gain seats? right now democrats are up two seats. now there are two seats we are watching -- two races we're watching, north dakota and montana where republicans could pick up seats, but it's looking like democrats have a chance of either breaking even or actually gaining a senate seat. >> when you talk about the gains where are you putting angus king, the independent from maine. >> i am putting angus king, self-described independent firmly in the democratic camp. he will almost certainly caucus

with democrats in the senate. that's why democrats kind of below the surface did everything they could to help him win. >> jon karl, when you take a look at the big picture of the house, which we know -- when you go to the sfwhat what are we learning about the tea party tonight? the tea party fervor caused such a cataclysmic difference in 2010. >> well, i'm looking at a couple of the most high-profile tea party figures to see how they do. so far they've been hanging on. one of the races we're really watching is alan west of florida. a real hero to the tea party. he is now from florida 50/50 up by a little over a thousand votes but an incredibly close race and watching michele bachmann still waiting for returns there but the bottom line, diane, we'll have a congress that is more deeply divided even than the one we just saw because when you start looking at this, look at the senate, you have elizabeth warren on the left of the senate replacing scott brown who was

one of the few moderates left there and you are -- we'll also watch what happens in wisconsin, tammy baldwin looking very strong tonight. we haven't called it yet out there but she is another one who would be over there on the left side of the senate so in both cases, house and senate, we are looking at the majorities remaining the same and the ideological differences between perhaps even starker than they were in the last one. >> the story in the senate. let's go back to gary langer to get more into the economy and what we're seeing in the exit polls and one thing we're seeing, gary langer, is one of the things boosting president obama right now is the fact that most americans or a majority of americans still blame president george w. bush for the economic woes they face right now. >> you know, it's remarkable, george. three years and ten months into the obama presidency, a majority of voters, in fact by a 15-point marriagen voters blame george w. bush, not barack obama for the current state of the economy and those voters are overwhelmingly

voting for obama for re-election. george w. bush is the most unpopular second-term president in the post-war era following him into the presidency is for barack obama, the gift that keeps on giving. >> nicolle wallace, you've worked for george w. bush. you saw one thing, one dynamic in the entire campaign is mitt romney did not want to be tethered to the economic policies of george w. bush and, of course, president bush did not come to the convention. >> right, you know, he really was an invisible figure and republicans i think made a bet -- certainly in 2010 it worked against barack obama to still be blaming george w. bush who would appear based on the things we're looking at tonight that voters were restricted to that message and still willing to hold president bush responsible and that's surprising. >> we have a pro-jikz in the state in which president obama said this is the state that gave me a chance when no one else, we have a projected winner in iowa and it is president barack

obama, george. >> this is a big win. president obama's fire wall in the midwest, iowa, wisconsin and ohio, he has now won two out of three. he's won iowa. he's won wisconsin. he ends the campaign where he began more than four years ago with that stunning win in the iowa caucus in january 2008 against hillary clinton, surprised the world there. he came back on his last rally of his last campaign and shed a tear last night as he was speaking to the people of iowa and iowa has come through for him and if you look at that right now, with new hampshire and wisconsin and iowa -- want to put up this possibility board right now that shows that president obama has 257 electoral votes. he is closing in on that 270. ohio would put him well over the top but at this point he doesn't even necessarily need ohio. he could get there with a combination of two small states in the west, nevada and colorado would put him at 272 so he has two distinct paths right now to

270 electoral votes, something that mitt romney does not have right now, matt dowd. >> absolutely true. he can lose ohio, virginia and florida and still win by carrying colorado and nevada and that's the situation. they've been in this situation for weeks and now unfolding tonight just as i say as if the obama campaign had said they thought it would. they said they thought it would unfold this way, preserve the midwest, still win ohio and the biggest county out still only 20% of this county is in, cuyahoga county, only 20% in, that's cleveland and that gave barack obama a margin of 300,000 votes in that one county and that county is still 80% out. >> donna brazile, let's talk about iowa a little bit because that is where we first saw the power of this barack obama ground game. >> i'll never forget that. january 3rd, clinton and by the way we haven't mentioned bill clinton tonight. when i look at this map tonight, pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, bill clinton did a

phenomenal job campaigning across the country, side by side with president obama, clearly some of the clinton effect really helped president obama tonight especially on the ground game. president obama has some of the -- i would like to say the best in the business. they know how to target. they know how to expand their the electoral. the romney campaign careerly underestimated the obama campaign ability to use analytics, social media to target these new voters and get out the people who came out in historic numbers in 2008. >> and, george will, we see this right now. what do you think republicans can learn from what we're seeing on the board as it builds up tonight? >> well, there are accelerating demographic changes. this election was romney's economics against obama's demographics and demographics is just slaughtering economics so far tonight and unless the economic -- the demographics

change in the country accommodated by the republican party and they'll get a big challenge because if the president is re-elected and if he's as clever as i suspect he is, he will bring immigration reform front and center to -- >> he vowed to do it. >> to give the republicans a refund to redirect themselves if they're not very careful. >> all right, donna brazile, is hillary clinton going to run? you were talking about over president clinton out there campaigning. >> i'm looking at 100 precincts are still in -- i'm still trying to make sure people vote. >> trying to order pizza for everybody in line there. >> fairfax county near and dear to my heart, 100 precincts are still out. look, it's true, we talk about 2016, so many talented people including the vice president of the united states, had to mention joe biden's name otherwise i have a 3:00 a.m. phone call but we'll see. right now we have four more years hopefully of president obama and a role that helped grow the economy and keep us

safe and strong. >> you wanted in on this, barbara. >> i do because i have heard president clinton talking about his wife and encouraging her to run in four years. she says as we have heard i am tired. i need time off. he said to friends and she's worried about being too old. she said she's going to be 69. he said, that's young. he keeps telling her that's young, that's young so he i think will push her to run and she will say, let me just take a nap. look ahead. if it were up to the president, his wife would be running. >> all right. barbara, we'll take a pause right now. we want to let the rest of the stations across this country join us, because we think we may have some big projections coming up and we want to make sure that everybody in the country is here with us.

>> announcer: this is an abc news special report. "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. here again diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and here we mark the time. here we are, ohio is in. we are projecting the battleground state of ohio for president barack obama which means you are looking at the president of the united states. barack obama has been re-elected. the 44th president. listen to the crowd out in times square. the man who came in promising the audacity four years ago will now have a chance to promise possibilities. a new future for the next four years coming up, george. >> another chapter in an improbable journey. it is well to remember right now that just ten years ago barack obama was a state senator in

illinois. now he is a re-elected president of the united states. a very different campaign from four years ago. four years ago he rode away into office and this time running for re-election, he had to try to beat away back a wave of economic discontent. he did it with a campaign that was brutal on mitt romney, but also brilliant in terms of turning out the vote, matthew dowd, a huge victory. ♪ now that i can dance >> the economy has suffered. he had a number that he thought -- both sides will have to reflect on this because there's many misconceptions and problems that happen but i think the republicans are really -- the polls were right. all the polls were right. the republicans argued against and said, no, no, no, we'll do it differently. compose a different electorate. it didn't happen and they'll have to face a future where there's no leader of the party in an electorate that's much to

their disadvantage. >> he always said he was a fourth quarter closer. that he was lebron at the very end but i want to bring in nicolle right now for your thoughts. >> well, look, i think this was a campaign that has always had its doubters. i mean, this was a primary where he was sort of the third, fourth, fifth choice. we romanced chris christie, we romanced mitch daniels and fell in love with everybody that wasn't running in the party and carried over. he never was able to get the monkey off his back. we never stopped doubting him and i think that hurt him and i think until his own stellar performance in the first debate we really didn't believe in him and i think that took its toll on mitt romney. >> donna, quick thought. >> four years ago voters wanted to make history. this time around they wanted to make a difference. they wanted to make a difference in terms of somebody who they thought was on their side to create jobs, somebody -- health care, keep the country safe and sound.

this is amazing. this is tough. i have to tell you, but it feels good. >> george will, there was a moment after that first debate where it looked like the president would not be re-elected but as diane pointed out he closed with a kick. >> he did close with a kick and both sides fought a gallant fight and mitt romney had a problem that i think, nicolle, you were talking about. during the republican nominating process, the party turned first to one person then for to try and avoid what turned out to be inevitable. if there's a winner tonight, it's the senator from florida, marco rubio because all eyes will be turned to him as a man who might have a way to get up the demographic of this party. >> you talked so much about being there with those who have lost and the first thought they have when they know it's over. >> well, i just want to say something about obama, because the second term for many, many presidents who won a second term was not good. very often in the second term

whether it was bill clinton or even ronald reagan, the second term -- >> richard nixon. >> richard nixon, the second term starts out happy and goes downhill so he now really has to prove himself in every respect and we've been watching the two children and it's going to be, you know, going off to college and be more involved in what they're doing now but the biggest thing he has to do, of course, is to practice what he has been preaching, now he really has to get those jobs. >> want to go to jake tapper in a moment but first, david muir, at romney headquarters. >> reporter: well, i can tell you, george, a tough room to be in. you can see the crowd behind me, they are trained on the big monitors in the front of the room that have been watching the cables and switching back between the major networks with the announcement that barack obama has been re-elected.

i was talking to a couple of voters who are gathered supporters and one woman said, i'm shocked. we have to do something about the deficit, the debt. my children will pay for this. so i think from this room and from, you know, a good part of this country, that was supporting mitt romney's effort to become president, there's going to have to be a message from this president-elect in a second term about what he'll do to rein in the spending and to address the deficit and some of these issues that mitt romney championed in his year 1/2 run. really as you know, george and diane he's been running for six years or so. it's been a long time in coming to get his name on that ballot. he said he was humbled to see it there this morning and he was asked by all of us here in the press earlier today had he thought about what it would be like not to win this race what he would do and quite honestly he said he only prepared a speech for a victory. he said i haven't thought about it but i do have a life that's very important to me and i have a family. that's a message he has said along the way regardless of whether he wins he'll be okay

but the fact goes out to the issues and causes they believed in in selecting paul ryan and his tough talk on debt and spending in washington and i think the supporters of the romney/ryan campaign will expect to hear from this president what he's going to do to try to now bring this nation together, george and diane. >> we can see the tears all around you there, david. i want to head over to president obama's headquarters, jake tapper, we have a twist, jake. i'm sure you know about this too, we're all in this together, that's how we campaigned and that's who we are, thank you, barack obama. >> reporter: that's right, in fact, well, normally where a president is accepting a victory such as this, with a big speech, we first got indication that president obama was declaring victory by a tweet, a picture of him and michelle obama hugging saying four more years and then again this personal tweet signed by the president saying as you say "we're all in this together.

that's how we campaigned and that's who we are. thank you, signed b.o., barack obama, it is electric here at campaign headquarters in chicago. they are crying tears but different from the tears of the romney tears hq. people hugging each other, very excited. there was a lot of concern that the economic problems that the country was having and the difficulties president obama was having with certain demographic groups was going to mean this would be a very long night. it turns out not so long after all. this is the third president in a row who has been re-elected and he did it using the same strategy of the previous president, george w. bush, the president who he blames for so many of the troubles that still are a problem for him today, problems for the american people today, he had a -- george w. bush fought for re-election even though the public was ambivalent about him because of the war in iraq. he did it by making the

alternative unacceptable. that's what he did to john kerry and george w. bush did to john kerry and exactly what president obama did to another patrician massachusetts politician, mitt romney, making him an unacceptable alternative. that, of course, is just the strategy, this is a bigger moment than just political strategy. president obama standing for so many things, for so many people, the demographic groups that supported him, women, minority groups, urban communities, very excited this evening and we'll hear from president obama in a short bit but without question, this was a tougher campaign for president obama than his previous one and i believe he may be the first president in history re-elected with fewer electoral votes than he won the first time he was elected. i'm not positive about but i think that's true. a big, big night for presi obama and his team that executed a very, very determined strategy that was tough, that took away some of the hope and change veneer off his first election but at the end of the day was

victorious, diane and george. >> franklin roosevelt, you talk about the communities electric for president obama. one of them right near here in harlem. abc's deborah roberts is there, the same place she was four years ago, another celebration, deborah. >> hey, george, i got to tell you this doesn't even seem like the same room i stepped into five hours ago. when we arrived here people were somber. they were sick to their stomach with worry thinking it would be a very long night. one woman -- with the president feeling disappointed and -- tonight she said it's all a given. they are here for the president tonight, george. there's one gentleman said to me it's almost like a couple renewing their wedding vows. maybe they're not as giddy as they were on their honeymoon but

at the end of the day they can still love each other. i think you see this love is still here for the president. these people are beside themselves. right? >> i love it. loving it. four more years. >> somber, you said. not with what we're seeing. we can barely hear you and let's head out to josh elliott who is out in times square. josh. >> reporter: a raucous times square, diane, the cheers really gathering and now it is complete pandemonium down here, again, raucous half hour to be sure and we are joined now by a mother and daughter who she said went for the right one registered nurses from iowa. you both voted for the newly re-elected barack obama. why did he get your vote. >> he got our vote because health care needs a change. we all need good health care. still make it affordable and accessible for us. that's how we keep our costs down is by having healt